James Wesley Rawles, founder of survivalblog.com, shares with you everything you need to know to be ready for the worst. The book includes information on proper food storage and sanitation, gardening and livestock basics, investment strategies to protect your assets, medical advice, communication techniques, home security, and how to get "outta Dodge" when, in the parlance of the movement, "the shit hits the fan".

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James Wesley Rawles, founder of survivalblog.com, shares with you everything you need to know to be ready for the worst. The book includes information on proper food storage and sanitation, gardening and livestock basics, investment strategies to protect your assets, medical advice, communication techniques, home security, and how to get "outta Dodge" when, in the parlance of the movement, "the shit hits the fan".

A couple of reviewers have griped that it is too pessimistic (did they miss the entire "The End Of The World As We Know It" part of the title?), or too conservative (seems that the "how to Survive The..." part of the title was overly complex for them). If you are not concerned that the world we now enjoy may be developing major disruptions (Japanese atomic power plant, anyone?), or failing in ways both big (budget deficit, housing market, faux unemployment numbers) and small (shrinking sizes of product at the grocery store, without shrinking prices), then you will not find this book to make sense for you. If on the other hand, you do have these concerns, you will find much in this book to consider. It is not an encyclopedic reference, cookbook style, of everything you need to do to survive all manner of disaster. What it is, indeed, is a survey of the sorts of issues you may want to consider, and measures you may want to look into so that you and your family might successfully respond to them. And then move on from there.

This Audio book is good, but I now want the reading version as there is so much detail that I want to reread it and have it for further study. The constant URLs were a bit annoying to have to listen to as well. Altogether this is a very well done account of proper planning, details and equipment for a TEOTWAWKI or SHTF scenario. A reader may not be able to do everything in this book to be ready but knowing this stuff will be more helpful than not even if you cant afford the cost $$$ of all the purchases needed to be this prepared. I read the Patriots as my first SHTF book and fell in love with it. This is a nice companion piece and (obviously) a how to!

Based on the previous reviews I thought most of what is in this book would just be be common sense, but there are many, many subjects Rawles covers that I never considered. This is a very good book to have, the subject matter covered and advise provided by the author could be invaluable if things take a turn for the worst. Case-in-point, look at what is happening with the spiraling cost of food and clothing. It's worth a look if for nothing more than to get an idea of what could happen in our future.

Dick Hill does a fantastic job of reading - one of the most talented readers I have ever heard.

So there is no doubt that the gentleman who wrote this book is knowledgeable. He definitely knows his stuff. However, his proposal, even if you were to implement only 20% is not affordable, nor practical for about 97% of the population in North America. I guess that's the point though. In the world this guy creates in this book and his fictional novels, that's who survives at the end of the day - a small fraction of the continent.

For the rest of us, there are nuggets in this book that may be useful to you. I bought it on sale so it was worth a listen. As long as you keep in mind that the vast majority of the book is prepping overkill and that the likelihood of the end of the world is minuscule, it's not a complete waste of time.

If however, you are into living 100km away from the closest urban centre, like the idea of living in a bunker with few windows, hoarding years of food, owning about 15 different guns and thousands of rounds and just being an all round weirdo/recluse and you've got about $500,000 in the bank just waiting for you to burn through it on the off chance the end of the world happens - hey, this book is for you.

For the rest of us, practice good common sense and you'll probably "survive" almost anything the world throws at you. Heck, my great grandparents and grandparents survived the great depression and the scourge of fascism and imperialism and they came out of it just fine. Just saying.

You can tell this author knows what he is talking about because he is into it fully. He lives the life and does the prepping himself. The book is a wealth of information. Sometimes reading off the bullet lists can put you to sleep while driving, is overcome by the vast array of knowledge and information you can get from this. Overall, the information is well rounded and opens your eyes a bit on what prepping for an emergency or even a few short days without power. I recommend you get this one if any of the set of these types. Then judge for yourself and follow up. I just realized how lacking I was recently with my few token preparations, so I'm doubling up on the base effort. Get it. Worth the credit. You don't have to have an end of world situation for this book to help you.

This is a great book with lots of good information. However, it is better suited to a library of reference material, rather than an audio book. In other words, it is a little too "dry" to listen to in audio form.

I am glad this was a bonus book. If you think about the content of the book, it would only make sense to have the printed version... Other then that, there is a wealth of information in here for those that are survival minded. I liked one of his other books, Patriot, much better.

Would you be willing to try another book from James Wesley Rawles? Why or why not?

don't base your opinion on Rawles' books on this one alone! He is a great story teller.

Did Dick Hill do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

not a lot of characters in this book

What character would you cut from How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It?

You should get this book in conjuction with the Patriots. Read or listen to it after as Rawles goes into some details about the technics and tactics employed by his "group" in the Patriots. His theories are based on specalation of some worsts case scenarios, but their is a lot of wisdom in his advise. So listen up but don't let it bring you down. The world is a great place still!

The nature of the topic is a very real possibility, it is important to occasionally think about this stuff and have a plan. I have prviously and when a hurricane hit me, I had a plan and was prepared.

Has How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It turned you off from other books in this genre?

The content could be presented a lot more intelligently, it is very dry, not too much new infoirmation, just a straight presentation. Why not some thought provoking choices and ultimatums? Some hypothetical possibilties?

What didn’t you like about Dick Hill’s performance?

Kind of monotone, he didn't capturew my attention very well, I found myself fading off and thinking about other things too often.

it would be better in writing, its really hard to listen to websites that are spelled out, said out loud.com lol. All in all it does what it says it will do, teach you what you should be doing. If your looking for a last minute fix for a disaster, this is not the book for you. This book means business, however, listening to it, I did pick up a few ideas that just may save me to die another day in the end.

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